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HOMAS GORDON 



THE "INDEPENDENT WHIG' 



J. M. BULLOCH 



BERDEEN: ATTHE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
M-CM'XVIII 






iC^m^Yk^ 



THOMAS GORDON 

THE ^INDEPENDENT WHIG" 



By 
J. M. BULLOCH 



A.BERJDEEN: AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
M-CM-XVIII 



...oV 



^^-^' 



25 copies reprinted from the 
Aberdeen University Library Bulletin, Vol. III., Nos. 17, iJ 

Gift 
Author 

DEC Vd mB 



THOMAS GORDON, THE ^INDEPENDENT 

WHIG" 

A Biographical Bibliography 

All students of eighteenth-century polemics and of second-hand 
book catalogues are familiar with the name of Thomas Gordon, 
co-author of the " Independent Whig" and translator of Tacitus ; but 
few readers have any idea of the prolificness and popularity of this 
obscure Scotsman, who was writing constantly for a period of over 
thirty years (1716-1750), and whose work was being reprinted as 
recently as the year 1886. 

He had not the charm of Addison or Steele, who quarrelled over 
the Peerage Bill of 1719, which introduced Gordon into politics. 
Gibbon thought him " commonplace," and flouted his " pompous 
folios" of Tacitus. Bolingbroke dismissed him as the "worst 
writer" in England of his time. Pope pilloried him as Silenus in 
the " Dunciad " (iv. line 492) and mocked him in the ** Satires"; 
while Pope's industrious editor, Mr. Courthope, describes him as 
one of the " venal hacks " of his day. 

Yet the fact remains that Gordon's pamphlets enjoyed an en- 
ormous vogue while he was alive and long after he was dead. Thus 
the ** Independent Whig " went through at least seven editions in this 
country .between 1720 and 1747, and was reprinted twice in America, 
besides being translated into French. His other political works 
were translated into French, Dutch, and Spanish, while part of his 
Tacitus was reprinted for the million in the Camelot Classics so 
recently as 1886, with a eulogistic introduction by a member of New 
College. All this is quite consistent with the "literary" man's 
neglect of him, for the most popular books are rarely " literary," as 
witness Mrs. Henry Wood and Nat Gould with millions of copies 
to their credit ; and the test breaks down even more obviously in 

3 



THOMAS GORDON 

the case of polemical books, as " The Fruits of Philosophy," to take 
one notorious case, still serves to remind us. No one can pretend 
that Gordon is read to-day as Addison and Steele are ; on the other 
hand, there can be no doubt that he produced a corpus of advanced 
opinions on politics, imperial and ecclesiastical, which had a far- 
reaching influence in their day and generation ; and we have now 
reached a stage when we are beginning to evaluate eighteenth- 
century polemics more minutely than Leslie Stephen did, especially 
on the biographical side, as shown by Mr. Horace Bleackley's 
elaborate new life of John Wilkes. 

Unfortunately, we know very little about Thomas Gordon's own 
history, for, though a prodigal dispenser of opinions, he was very 
sparing of the facts about his origins and career, so that we might 
very well call him Silentio rather than Silenus (an epithet applied 
to him because he happened to be a Commissioner of Wine Licenses) 
as Pope did in the " Dunciad ". Gordon's own reticence was further 
accentuated by the disapproval of his opinions on the part of his 
literary countrymen. For example, Chalmers, in his " General Bio- 
graphical Dictionary" (1814), dismisses the "Independent Whig" 
as "a gross and indecent libel on the established religion," describes 
his style as "extremely vulgar," and tells us that his Tacitus is 
" miserably mangled ". Thomas Murray in his "Literary History 
of Galloway" (1822) was even more shocked by Gordon's views, 
thinking it "a fortunate circumstance that the * Independent Whig' 
was now known only by name ", No family of the house of Gordon 
was anxious to claim kin with him, because the Gordons as a race 
have never greatly interested themselves in ideas — they are essen- 
tially men of action — and least of all in radical ideas ; so that be- 
yond a note in a letter written by Sir Alexander Gordon of Culvennan 
to the effect that Gordon's brother was a surgeon in Glasgow, we 
are quite in the dark. 

It is usually said that he belonged to Kirkcudbright, but there is 
a dispute as to what part of the Stewartry he came from ; some say 
from Shirmers in the Parish of Balmaclellan, and others say from 
the Parish of Kells. Thomas Murray informs us that his father, 
" the representative of an ancient family descended from the Gordons 
of Kenmure, was proprietor of Gairloch," at which no one could 
protest on family grounds, for the family had become extinct. An 



THE "INDEPENDENT WHIG 

attempt has been made recently to tack him on the Gordons of 
Largmore, to whom Dr. John Gordon, Chirurgeon in Glasgow, 
the medical master of Smollett and of Sir John Moore's father, 
belonged.! The anonymous author of "The Characters of two 
Independent Whigs" (1720) tells us that Gordon was "by birth a 
Scot and by character an Irishman ". 

The date of his birth is unknown. Chalmers, followed by Ander- 
son in the " Scottish Nation," suggests that he was educated at the 
University of Aberdeen or of St. Andrews. As it happens, there 
was a Thomas Gordon at King's College in 1713, and if we are to 
credit "Tacitus" Gordon, as the British Museum Catalogue does, 
with a law thesis in Edinburgh in 1716, this date would fit in, all the 
more as the thesis is dedicated to the 1st Earl of Aberdeen. This 
thesis is entitled : — 

Disputatio juridica, ad Tit. 4, Lib. 1, ff. De in integrum restitutionibus, 
quam favente numine, ex auctoritate clarissimi ac consultissimi 
viri, D.D. Davidis Dalrymple, equitis baronetti, Regii apud Scotos 
Advocati inclytae Facultatis Juridicae Decani nee non ex ejusdera 
Facultatis consensu et decreto, pro Advocati munere consequendo, 
publicae disquisitioni subjicit Thomas Gordon A. & R. ad diem 
29 Decembris H. Lq : S. Edinburgi : in aedibusTho. Ruddimanni, 
1716. [4to, pp. ix, 8. In British Museum. Dedicated : " Nobilis- 
simo, illustrissimo, ac potentissimo D. Georgio," Earl of Aber- 
deen ..." nee non D. Gulielmo Domino de Haddo . . . filio ejus 
unico maximo parente dignissimo". Contains a " Prooemium," 
eleven theses, and six " annexa ".] 

It is not easy to fit in "Tacitus" Gordon with this Thomas 
Gordon, for according to a letter, almost the only auto-biographical 
one he wrote, to George Duckett, the author, dated London, January, 
1718-1719 (Add. MSS. 36772, f. 198), he had lived " almost five years " 
at Amesbury in Wilts, where he was " taken for a squire " because 

^The whole question has been opened recently by Mr. E. S. Dodgson, Ox- 
ford, who is interested in Gordon philologically, first in a note to Notes and 
Querits, and then in the Kirkctidbrightshire Advertiser^ where several letters ap- 
peared on Feb. 7, 16, 23, March 2, 9, April 13, 20, June 8, and July 27, 1917, 
with an article (by J. M. Bulloch) on Gordon's literary acquaintances, May 25 
and June 15, 1917, and a short bibliography by Mr. Thomas Fraser, Dalbeattie, 
May 11, 1917. Mr. Dodgson discussed his vocabulary in the same journal of 
May 4, 1917, and in the Royal Cornwall Gazette of May 17, 1917. The most 
succinct life of Gordon is that of Sir Leslie Stephen in the " D.N.B.". 



THOMAS GORDON 

he wore a laced hat and a sword. He then went to London, where 
he is said, by his biographers, from Chalmers in 1814 downwards, to 
have taught languages. According to the author of "The Char- 
acters of two Independent Whigs," he first attached himself to the 
"secret agency" of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, who was com- 
mitted to the Tower for treason in July, 1715, and by whom Gordon 
is said to have been kidnapped. This may account for his sojourn 
in Amesbury, At any rate, he "again became a visible man " at the 
time of the Earl's trial in July, 1717, changing his politics and at- 
taching himself to Walpole. He settled down as an author in 
London, where he continued till his death in 1750. 

At first he plunged into light journalism and jestful pamphleteer- 
ing with an essay entitled : — 

A Dedication to a great man concerning dedications, discovering 
amongst other wonderful secrets what will be the present posture 
of affairs a thousand years hence. 2nd edition. London: James 
Roberts in Warwick Lane. 1718 : price 6d. [8vo, pp. 32. John 
Whiston, the bookseller, thought this skit one of the two really 
humorous things Gordon ever wrote. The pamphlet flouts "the 
Right Hon. Dives Earl of Widefield," the patron of Paul Poorwit. 
A 3rd edition appeared in 1718. Both are in the British Museum. 
The pamphlet was reprinted in "A Cordial for low spirits" (i. 
pp. 5-48); and in "A Collection of tracts," by Trenchard and 
Gordon, both issued in 1751.] 

About the same time he was writing a series of light essays for 
" a weekly stipend " paid by a certain bookseller. These were re- 
printed in two volumes as follows : — 

The Humourist : being essays upon several subjects, viz. : news 
writers, enthusiasm, the spleen, country entertainment, love, the 
history of Miss Manage, ambition and pride, idleness, fickleness 
of human nature, prejudice, witchcraft, ghosts and apparitions, 
the weather, female disguises, the art of modern conversation, the 
use of speech, the punishment of staying at home, on Sunday, etc. ; 
criticism, art of begging, anger, avarice, death, grief, keeping the 
Ten Commandments, travel misapply'd, flattery, the abuse of 
words, credulity, eating, the love of power, the experiments to get 
rid of time, retirement, the story of Will Hacket, the enthusiast. 
With a dedication [pp. iii-xxx] to the Man in the Moon. By the 
author of "The Apology for Parson Alberoni," "The Dedication 
to a great man concerning dedications". London: printed for 
William Boreham at the Angel in Paternoster Row, 1720. [Svo, 
pp. xxxvi, 440, with a twelve page index. In British Museum.] 

6 



THE " INDEPENDENT WHIG " 

Another volume was subsequently issued, a third edition of the 
two volumes appearing in 1724 and 1725. There is a copy in the 
British Museum. The second volume (pp. vi, 267, index 268-280) 
of this edition, which is dedicated to "James Lord Tyrawley and 
Killmain " (that is James O'Hara), soldier and diplomatist (who 
succeeded to the barony of Tyrawley and Kilmaine in 1724), contains 
the following items : — 

An Account of the author, stock jobbers, authors, travels, fancy, 
journalists, the weather, hope, education, pratings, modern in- 
ventions, luxury, libel, popular discontents, great men, theatrical 
entertainments, method in writing, suicide, infidelity, publick 
sports, levity, the duty of authors, a club of authors, happiness, 
women, coffee houses, masquerades, patriotism, Bishop Burnet's 
History, mortality, the character of different nations, sedition, 
hopers, and some characters of the present age. 

Gordon then turned almost exclusively to serious subjects, plung- 
ing into the ecclesiastical and political battles of the day, and taking 
a firm stand against the fighting rearguards of reaction which had 
not been wholly exorcised by the advent of the House of Hanover. 
He made his debut by taking part in the Bangorian Controversy (1717- 
1720), and it was this that brought him to the notice of John Tren- 
chard, the radical-minded squire (1662-1723), whose acquaintance, 
as he tells us in "Cato's Letters," he picked up in a coffee house, 
then the rendezvous of the Intelligentia. This forgotten Controversy 
arose out of the liberal views of Benjamin Hoadly, Bishop of Bangor 
(1676-1761), especially in his " Preservatives against the principles 
and practices of the Non Jurors" (1716), and his Sermon on the 
*' Nature of the Kingdom or Church of Christ," preached before 
George I on March 31, 1717. Hoadly took a diametrically opposite 
stand from brother prelates like Atterbury (1662-1732), who had 
to be sent to the Tower for his Jacobitism, and banished the country. 
Gordon's lucubrations in the dispute enjoyed great popularity for 
over thirty years and were frequently reprinted. There were at 
least four of them : — 

A Modest Apology for Parson Alberoni, Governor to King Philip, a 
minor, and Universal Curate of the whole Spanish Monarchy ; the 
whole being a short but unanswerable defence of priestcraft ; 
and a new communication by the Bishop of Bangor. London : 
J. Roberts, Warwick Lane. 1719. 4th edition, price 6d. [8vo, 
No copy in its separate form in the British Museum, but it is 

7 



THOMAS GORDON 

reprinted in "A Cordial for low spirits " (i. pp. 89-142), and in '« A 
Collection of tracts," by Trenchard and Gordon, both issued in 
1751. An edition was published in Philadelphia in 1724 (Charles 
Evans's '• American Bibliography ").] 

An Apology for the danger of the Church, proving that the Church is 
and ought to be always in danger, and that it would be dangerous 
for her to be out of danger ; being the second part of the Apology 
for Parson Alberoni ; by the same author. London : J. Roberts. 
1719. 6d. [8vo, pp. 32. In the British Museum. It was also 
reprinted in "A Cordial for low spirits " (i. pp. 143-192) and in "A 
Collection of tracts ".] 

Cardinal Alberoni's Letter to the Right Reverend Father in God for 
the support of the Church by introducing ignorance and supersti- 
tion, in answer to a letter of that Prelate's wherein he desires to 
be made a Cardinal. 1719. [No copy in its separate form in the 
British Museum ; but it is reprinted in " A Cordial for low spirits " 
(i. pp. 193-206), and in " A Collection of tracts ".] 

Giulio Alberoni (1664-1752) — who became Prime Minister of 
Spain in 1717 — by violating the Treaty of Utrecht, created the 
quadruple alliance against Spain in 1719, which resulted in the 
destruction of the Spanish Fleet in the Mediterranean, and he was 
driven into exile by the Spaniards. Having patronised the Pretender 
to annoy England, he roused the wrath of the Whigs. Alberoni 
represented everything that Gordon did not believe in, so that 
the pamphlets are writ sarcastically, as when Gordon says in the 
" Modest apology " that the Cardinal " has as good a right as any 
other Priest or Vicar whatever to act as becomes his order, by 
nourishing War and destruction ". 

A Letter to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury proving that His Grace 
cannot be the author of the letter to an eminent Presbyterian 
clergyman in Swisserland, in which the present state of rdigion in 
England is blackened and exposed, and the present Ministry are 
misrepresented and traduced; 2nd edition. London: J. Roberts. 
1719: price 6d. [Pp. 36.] 

William Wake (1657-1737), Archbishop of Canterbury, had 
written a letter in Latin to the Church of Zurich reflecting on 
Bishop Hoadly ; hence this attack. The British Museum Catalogue 
queries the authorship of Gordon, but Sir Leslie Stephen suggests 
that this was probably one of the pamphlets which brought him to 
the notice of Trenchard. It is reprinted in the sixth edition of the 
*♦ Independent Whig " (iii. 201-237). 

8 



THE "INDEPENDENT WHIG ' 

Gordon rightly anticipated that his pamphlets would add fuel 
to the controversy, for in his " N.B." to the " Modest Apology," he 
writes — " Not one of the numerous answers which will be made to 
this Apology will be worth reading. But at the earnest request of 
fny publisher I design to write and publish a reply to myself which I 
desire everybody to buy ". One of the answers was entitled : — 

A Sincere Apology for the Mountebank Benjamin [Hoadly], written 
in the fashionable stile of the late very Modest Apology for Parson 
Alberoni, the whole being a short but unanswerable defence of 
Dissenting principles and a new way of computing the doctrines of 
those who are often styl'd the Apostolical and the Ambassadors of 
Heaven. London: E. Smith, in Cornhill. 1719: price 6d. [In 
the British Museum.] 

These pamphlets caught the fancy of John Trenchard, who was 
then getting on to his sixtieth year, and had an ample fortune which 
he dedicated to the spread of his opinions, for as Gordon says he 
had a " strong way of thinking ". Trenchard had started setting 
forth his views when Gordon was in short frocks, for he had written 
a book against a Standing Army in 1697. The young Scot, full of 
energy, was just the man for him, and so their literary partnership 
started. At first Gordon is said to have been Trenchard's amanuen- 
sis, but he soon developed into co-authorship with him, and between 
them the " Independent Whig " was the result. ' 

The Independent Whig. 

Gordon's name will always be associated with the production of 
the "Independent Whig". It is true that he was not its "onlie 
begetter " (contributing less than half its items) : he was not even 
its chief inspirer ; but it forms the very core of the creed which he 
expressed in his polemical writings for more than a quarter of a 
century, and which alone entitles him to remembrance. Hence the 
necessity of examining the " Independent Whig " in some detail. 

Although it must seem dull to the modern reader, in view not 
only of its antiquated style, but of the fact that the principles it 
stood for have all been accepted, the ** Independent Whig " is 
memorable by reason of the enormous popularity it enjoyed in its 
day, for it is one of the very few weekly periodicals that have ever 
been reprinted. It ran through at least seven editions in this 
country (1722-1747), was reprinted twice in America (1724-1740), and 

9 



THOMAS GORDON 

once in French, in 1767, that is, say forty-seven years after its first 
appearance. 

Trenchard and Gordon began their polemical partnership with 
a pamphlet apparently called "The Independent Whig," published 
abroad some time in 1719. There is no copy in the British Museum, 
but we learn the fact from the preface to the pamphlet on Gibraltar, 
which states that: "The former part of the 'Independent Whig' 
appeared abroad about the time the Peerage Bill made its exit h'om 
the House of Commons. [It was dropped, April 14, 1719, then re- 
introduced and then defeated by 269 votes to 177 on December 8, 
1719. It would have rendered representative government impossible.] 
I design to continue the Paper weekly in a half sheet, which will 
appear on Wednesday the 20th of this month [December, 1719.?] in 
which I shall meddle with Politicks only occasionally, my principal 
intention being to expose the malignity and danger of certain prin- 
ciples which prevail too much, and I wish I could not say are too 
little discouraged. . . . The felicity of the people is the end of the 
Magistrates." 

The first part of the " Independent Whig " was probably about 
the Peerage Bill. The second part dealt with Imperial politics on a 
larger scale and was entitled : — 

Considerations offered upon the approaching Peace and upon the 
importance of Gibraltar to the British Empire, being the second 
part of the " Independent Whig ". London : J. Roberts, near the 
Oxford Arms in Warwick Lane. 1719. 4th edition: 6d. [8vo, 
pp. 31.] 

The pamphlet was strongly anti-French: "The Nation in the 
world whose power we have the most reason to guard against is 
that of France : and yet I don't know by what fatality it has so 
often been the unhappy instrument of promoting it ". It proved a 
great success, for at least five editions were printed by the end of 
1720 (of which a copy of the fifth is in the Aberdeen University 
Library), and it was reprinted twice in 1751, first in "A Cordial for 
low spirits," and secondly in "A Collection of tracts," by Trenchard 
and Gordon. It was also the cause of another pamphlet, of which 
there is a copy in the British Museum : — 

A Letter to the Independent Whig occasioned by his "Considera- 
tions of the importance of Gibraltar to the British Empire ". 
London : A. Moore. 1720. [Pp. 36.] 

10 



THE "INDEPENDENT WHIG 

A third pamphlet (of which there is a copy in the University 
Library) also appeared in 1719, probably after the Gibraltar pro- 
nouncement, apparently on December 20, 1719, the date on which it 
had been proposed to start the paper regularly : — 

The Character of an Independent Whig. London : J. Roberts, at the 
Oxford Arms in Warwick Lane. 1719. [8vo, pp. 31.] 

It was a synopsis of Whig opinion on many topics, as, for instance, 
in these pronouncements : " Our Whig . . . scorns all implicite 
faith in the State as well as the Church. The authority of names ia 
nothing to him. . . . He consents not that any man or body of men 
shall do what they please. . . . Our Whig is a declared enemy to all 
Wars if they are not absolutely necessary. . . . He would not have 
the men of the sword become familiar in the eyes of the people. . . . 
Our Whig has an aversion to Masquerades. They are a market for 
maidenheads and adultery : a dangerous luxury opposed to Virtue 
and Liberty." 

A postscript at the end states : " In the second part of this 
Character will be considered the Affair of a Northern War ". But 
no second part seems to have appeared, although the name was pre- 
served in an attack on the brochure entitled : — 

The Characters of two Independent Whigs, viz : T. G. of the North, 
and Squire T. of the West. London : printed for John Morphew^ 
near Stationers Hall. 1720. Price 3d.- [8vo, pp. 22.] 

This was not only an attack on the personal characters of Gordon 
and Trenchard — in which we are told that Gordon, starting as a 
" latitudinarian," first played the jackal to Lord Oxford, and then 
ratted to Lord Orfjrd — but a complaint that their Whiggism was 
sm generis and did not conform to the general principles held by the 
party. But while " The Two Characters " was forgotten, " The 
Character" had a great vogue, and was being reprinted as late as 
1751, both in "A Cordial for low spirits," and in the "Collection of 
tracts," by Trenchard and Gordon. 

The ** Independent Whig" proper, which must have been greatly 
encouraged by these preliminary skirmishes, started as a weekly ^ on 
Wednesday, January 20, 1720, and continued to January 4, 1721 (the 
fifty-third number), two extra numbers issued on Saturday, Decem- 

1 1 have not seen the paper in its serial form, which is not in the British 
Museum. 

II 



THOMAS GORDON 

ber 24 and December 31 having been slipped in. It took as its 
motto the first verse of the famous Horatian ode (lib. iii. ode 3) : — 

Justum et tenacem propositi virum 
Non civium ardor prava jubentium 
Non vultus instantis tyranni 
Mente quatit solida. 

It exchanged ecclesiastical for secular politics, concentrating on the 
pretensions of the High Church party; this characteristic being 
emphasised in the supplementary title to the fifth edition : — 

A Defence of Primitive Christianity and of our Ecclesiastical Estab- 
lishment against the exorbitant claims and encroachments of 
fonatical and disappointed clergymen. 

One can well understand how the ecclesiastical aspect of Whig- 
gism would appeal to a Scot like Gordon, who had begun his serious 
polemical work with several pamphlets bearing on the Bangorian 
Controversy (1717-1720), which had brought him to the notice of 
Trenchard. 

Each number was an (anonymous) monograph, mostly on ecclesi- 
astical subjects, and furiously against the High Church party. Al- 
though the points urged by the *' Independent Whig" seem to the 
vast majority of people to-day quite unanswerable, the journal raised 
a storm of opposition which showed that the reaction attacked had 
received a stmging blow, and immediately a counter blow v^^as de- 
livered from many quarters by the usual polemical pamphlet. How 
many of these tracts were launched I cannot say, but the British 
Museum possesses several of them : — 

A Letter to the author of the " Independent Whig," wherein the merits 
of the clergy are considered, the good vindicated, and the bad ex- 
posed, with some account of the late controversy in the Church. 
London : A. Moore. 1720. [8vo, pp. 32. In the Museum. Re- 
printed in "A Cordial for low spirits" (ii. 37-69); signed — "A 
Fellow-believer in the cause of truth ".] 
Aminidab's Letter to the author of a paper called "The Independent 
Whig," wherein is made appear that his taking upon himself the 
name of Independent serves only to show who he does depend on. 
London : T. Warner at the Black Boy in Paternoster Row. 1721, 
price 6d. [A copy of this pamphlet which is dedicated " to the 

A 1 Club by a Hearty Lover of the Church and Monarchy," is 

in the Bodleian Library, where it has been examined for me by 
Mr. E. S. Dodgson, and where it is catalogued under Thomas 
Gordon. There is no copy in the British Museum, nor any men- 

12 



THE "INDEPENDENT WHIG" 

tion of it in Halkett and Laing. The Museum has, however, 
several copies of a pamphlet entitled, " Aminidab or the Quaker'* 
Vision," a satirical tract in defence of Dr. Sacheverell's Sermon 
before the Lord Mayor in 1710.] 

A Letter from [George Douglas] the Lord Mordington to His Grace the 
Lord Archbishop of York occasioned by a most impious and 
scandalous weekly paper called " The Independent Whig ". Lon- 
don : T. Warner at the Black Boy in Paternoster Row. 172L 
[Pp. 78. In the Museum.] 

An Answer to some late papers entitled "The Independent Whig," s» 
far as they relate to the Church of England, as by law established ; 
in which her doctrines, creeds, liturgies, and establishments, her 
clergy and their rights, divine and humane, are modestly defended ; 
and their author's new notions proved to be, not only absurd and 
ridiculous, but also directly opposite to those very texts of God's 
Word, on which he pretends to found them. By Francis Squire, 
A.M., Rector of Exford, and Vicar of Cutcombe and Luxburrow,. 
Somerset. London: W. & J. Innys, at the West End of St. 
Paul's. 1723. [8vo, pp. xvi, 188. Dedicated (iii-vii) to the 
Archbishop of Canterbury. Preface to the Articles, pp. ix-xvi.] 

Besides these, attacks came from those in authority as set forth 
in the long letter to the publisher, signed " W. A.," which was pre- 
fixed to the fifth edition of the " Independent Whig," 1735. The 
prime mover of these was Thomas Wilson (1663-1755), Bishop of 
Sodor and Man, who attempted to keep ** this most pestilent book" 
out of the island. He did so first by an Act against it dated Janu- 
ary 27, 1721, and printed m extenso in this fifth edition ; then by a 
letter to the Rev. Mr. Woods, Episcopal Registrar, to be communi- 
cated to the Clergy, dated January 30, 1721 ; and lastly by a mandate 
to the same effect to the Governor of the Island, Alexander Home, 
dated February 21, 1721. The result was that the Library Keeper 
of the Island declined to accept a copy presented by Mr. Richard 
Worthington. 

Gordon and his fellow-fighter gave battle to the Bishop in a 
curious pamphlet which had so great a vogue that it was being re- 
printed as late as 1839 : — 

The Craftsman : a sermon or paraphrase upon several verses in the 
19th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles ; composed by the late 
Daniel Burgess, and intended to be preached by him in the high 
times, but prevented by the burning of his Meeting House (in 
1713). London. 1720. [8vo, 3rd edition: pp. 38. There is a 

13 



THOMAS GORDON 

copy in the Bodleian as mentioned in Halkett and Laing. It was 
reprinted in the fifth edition of the " Independent Whig," 1732. 
An 8th edition, sold by Mr Gurney, was published in London 
in 1792 (price 3d. 12mo, pp. 36). An edition was printed in New 
York for J. Parker and W. Weyman in 1753 (Charles Evans's 
"American Bibliography," iii. No. 7007). "The Craftsman" was 
also reprinted in "Tracts for the people," No. 21, 1839.] 

The ecclesiastical opposition offered to Trenchard and Gordon so 
far from silencing them was the breath of life to them. Indeed, we 
are told in the fifth edition, that although Trenchard was on his 
death-bed and "past all hope of recovery," he "laughed very 
heartily" at the attack made by "a certain clergyman" (the Rev. 
Francis Squire ?) The attacks probably resulted in booming the 
** Independent Whig," for it was reprinted in book form (8vo), for 
John Peele, at Locke's Head in 1721, with a dedication (pp. 1-lii) to 
the Lower House of Convocation, followed by the paper itself (pp. 
444) and a twenty-page index (Aberdeen University). A second edi- 
tion (8vo) appeared in 1722, a third (8vo) in 1726, and a fourth (Svo) 
in 1728. 

Even then the public was unsatisfied but asked for more, and an 
enlarged edition, the fifth, appeared in two 12mo volumes in 1732 
with a fuller title and more material : — 

The Independent Whig ; or, Defence of Primitive Christianity and of 
our Ecclesiastical Estates against the exorbitant claims and en- 
croachments of fanatical and disappointed clergymen. London : 
printed for J. Peele at Locke's Head, and sold by J. Osborn at 
Dock Head, near Rotherhithe. 1731. [2 vols. 12mo; vol. i. pp. 
Ixxxvii, 262 ; vol. ii. pp. 545, with a 28 pp. index. Dedication to 
the Lower House of Convocation (pp. iii-xxxvi) : A Letter to the 
Publisher of the " Independent Whig" signed " W. A." and dated 
December 14, 1731 (pp. xxxvii-lxxxi) : Preface dated December 21, 
/ 1731 (pp. Ixxxiii-lxxxvii).] 

This edition differs considerably from its predecessors. In the 
first place it gives the initials of the authors of the essays, from 
which we find that twenty-two were written by Gordon, eighteen by 
Trenchard, three by Trenchard and Gordon, and ten by " C " — 
perhaps *' Mr." Collins, who catalogued Gordon's works [Mojifhly Re- 
view^ iii. 464), and who, according to the Richard Baron ("A Third 
and last Cordial for low spirits"), was a great friend of Gordon. 
This may be Arthur Collins, the London bookseller (1690 P-1760), who 



THE "INDEPENDENT WHIG" 

compiled a Peerage. The fifth edition contained a new letter and the 
following items : — 

In what only true Religion consists. (Jan. 11, 1721.) (Trenchard and 

Gordon.) 
The Craftsman [first printed in 1720, vol. ii. pp. 473-511]. 
A Letter to a Gentleman in Edinburgh [signed "G'' and printed for 

the first time, vol. ii. pp. 513-536]. 
A long epitaph on Trenchard, in Latin and English. 

And still the public asked for more, so that a new and still further 
enlarged edition (the sixth) had to be issued in 1735 in three 12mo 
volumes. The first two (vol. i. pp. cl, 282 ; vol. ii. pp. 317, with a 
30 pp. index) are identical with the two volumes of the fifth edition. 
The third volume (pp. xxiv, 412, with a 20 pp. index) is dedicated 
(iii-xxiv) to Lord Paget (1689-1741-2), "a very ingenious man," and 
contains twenty-one new letters (55 to 75) by the " Independent 
Whig " with three other items, namely : — 

An Examination of the facts and reasonings in the Lord Bishop of 
Chichester's sermon preached before the House of Lords on 
January 30, 1731, in a letter addressed to his lordship [pp. 235-320]. 

A Sermon preached before the learned Society of Lincoln's Inn, 
January 30, 1732, from Job xxxiv. 30, by A Layman [pp. 321-375, 
and reprinted for J. Peele in 1733, pp. 51.] 

A Supplement to the Sermon [pp. 376-412]. This had first appeared as 
a pamphlet in 1721. 

Even with six editions the public was still unsatisfied, apparently 
expecting that every new issue would have a new " punch " in it. So 
in 1743 a seventh edition was launched in three volumes, a fourth 
being added in 1747 with the following title : — 

The Independent Whig: being a collection of papers all written, some 

of them published, during the late Rebellion. London : printed 

for J. Peele and sold by J. Osborn, at the Golden Ball, Pater- 

- noster Row. 1747. [12mo. Dedicated to the Earl of S . . . 

Pp. i-iii; Preface, xxxiv; text, pp. 1-368.] 

The volume contains thirty-two essays, which are largely of the 
ecclesiastical type of the original issue. 

The fourth volume (minus the dedication) was reprinted by J. 
Kilburn in Dublin in the following year, 1748, as ** A Collection of 
papers all written, some of them published, during the late Rebellion, 
by the author of 'The Independent Whig '" (pp. xx, 248: 12mo), 

15 



THOMAS GORDON 

while several of the papers (notably Nos. 7, 10, 14, 15, 16, and 17) 
were reprinted in a composite volume entitled " Essays against 
Popery, Slavery, and Arbitrary Power," published in Manchester 
(in 1750?). 

As I have said, the bulk of this fourth volume of the " Independent 
Whig " is ecclesiastical. Even the attack on Jacobitism is based on 
its ecclesiastical side, the writer regarding it as synonymous with 
Roman Catholicism. Thus in the thirty-first essay, on the absurdity 
of Jacobitism, we are told the "voice of Jacobitism is the same with 
the voice of Popery, to give up our senses. . . . Jacobites do with 
Patriotism as Papists do with Religion. How dare a Jacobite defile 
the sacred name of Patriotism, when he would leave the Gospel to 
the cruel mercy of a tool of the Pope and all the laws of liberty to 
a professed enemy of the Law." 

The fame of the " Independent Whig " spread beyond our shores. 
One edition was reprinted in New York in 1724, the first twenty 
numbers appearing serially (Charles Evans's " American Biblio- 
graphy," vol i. No, 2537). Another edition appeared in Philadelphia 
in 1740 {ibid. vol. ii. No. 4522). 

An edition was published in French in 1767 by Baron Paul 
Heinrich Dietrich von Holbach (1723-1789), the young German who 
was the friend of John Wilkes, and whose Paris salon is described 
by Mr. Horace Bleackley as the " Cradle of the French Revolution " 
(" Life of John Wilkes," p. 156). This edition is entitled :— 

L'Esprit du Clergd, ou le Christianisme primitiv vengd des enterprises 
et des exces de nos Pretres modernes. Traduit de I'Anglois [Lon- 
don], 1767. [2 vols. 8vo ; pp. 240 each. In the British Museum]. 

The year 1720 proved a very busy one for Gordon and Trenchard, 
for in addition to the weekly issue of the '* Independent Whig " they 
were engaged in other pamphleteering. Three of these pamphlets 
were as follows : — 

The Creed of an Independent Whig, with an orthodox introduction 
concerning canons, councils, mysteries, menaces, and church 
authority. London : J. Roberts. 1720. [Pp. vi, 28. In the 
British Museum.] 

Priestianity ; or, A view of the disparity between the apostles and the 
modern inferior clergy : by the author of the Creed of an Inde- 
dependent Whig. London: A. Moore. 1720. [Pp. 35. In the 

l6 



THE " INDEPENDENT WHIG 

British Museum. This pamphlet was reprinted in the second 
volume of "A Cordial for low spirits," pp. 105-170.] 
A Learned Dissertation upon old women, male and female, spiritual 
and temporal in all ages: whether in Church, State, or Exchange 
Alley : very seasonable to be read at all times, but especially at 
particular times; to which is added an essay upon the present 
union of Whig chiefs. London : J. Roberts in Warwick Lane. 
1720. [2nd edition; 12mo; price 6d. ; pp.31. This pamphlet, 
which was reprinted in "A Cordial for low spirits," 1751, speaks 
of " Queen James " and of the French Marshals as " so many old 
women on horseback ".] 



"Cato's Letters" (1720-1723) 

As if one journal of their own, besides stray pamphlets, was not 
sufficient artillery to bring to bear on the Bastilles of reaction, 
Gordon and Trenchard started another battery in the shape of a 
series of letters signed "Cato," contributed weekly first to the London 
Journal and then to the British Journal hQtWQQn October 8, or Nov- 
ember 5, 1720 — the exact date is differently stated in different 
editions of the republished series — and July 27, 1723. During this 
period 138 were written, six additional letters being added between 
August 24 and December 7, 1723, when the series ended apparently 
owing to Trenchard's illness and death, which occurred on Decem- 
ber 17, 1723. Of the entire series of letters, as we learn from the 
signed and dated series in the fifth edition, Gordon contributed 86, 
Trenchard wrote 52, and the two in collaboration produced 6. 

The series, which opened with a letter by Gordon giving " Reasons 
to prove we are in no danger of losing Gibraltar " — the subject with 
which the " Independent Whig " had opened fire — covers a much 
wider area than the latter journal, which concentrated fire on the 
ecclesiastical Bastille. Their character is well described by the sub- 
title of the fifth reprinted edition (1748) as " Essays on liberty, civil, 
and religious, and other important subjects ". Among these one of 
the most pressing was the " South Sea Bubble," to which fourteen 
essays were directed, including No. 2 to No. 10. Many essays were 
written on the philosophy of politics in general, while several on 
ethical subjects, such as •* Flattery," found their way into the series. 

The letters created some sensation and much opposition. Accord- 

ly 2 



THOMAS GORDON 

ing to the fifth edition, "an able and learned nobleman," who pos- 
sessed a friendship for both Trenchard and Gordon, "was so fond of 
these Letters that from his great partiality in speaking of them, many 
people inferred they were his own ". On two or three occasions he 
sent papers to be published under Cato's name, but as they were 
judged "not to coincide with Cato's design" they were not used. 
" He afterwards published some of them in another form, which 
heightened the report of his being the author of Cato's Letters," and 
a portrait of his lordship was published — "officiously done by Mr. 
Toland " — in the caption of which this was given forth as a fact. 

The series proved such a success that it was reprinted six times 
at least in book form between 1721 and 1754. The first book edition 
(1721), "A Collection of Cato's Letters," included the series as 
issued to December 17, 1720. The second book edition, "Political 
letters in the London Journal" (64 pp.), continued the series to the 
end of March, 1721. A new and enlarged edition, entitled simply 
" Cato's Letters," with a quotation from Cicero's " De Legibus," was 
printed in four volumes in 1724 for W. Wilkin, T. Walthoe, T. Wood- 
ward, and J. Peele, 138 letters down to July 27, 1723 (but all un- 
dated) being given. It is dedicated in a long letter to John Milner, 
Esq., of Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, and contains a still 
longer preface largely devoted to the virtues of Trenchard. In 1733 
"the third edition carefully corrected" appeared in four volumes 
under the title of " Cato's Letters ; or Essays on liberty, civil and 
religious, and other important subjects". It contains the original 
138 letters (November 5, 1720 to July 27, 1723), and six additional 
ones (August 24 to December 7, 1723) all being dated. A fourth 
edition appeared in four volumes in 1737, and a fifth, in four volumes, 
in 1748. Still another edition, in four volumes, was "printed in the 
year 1754," without publisher's or printer's names. All these are in 
the British Museum except the fourth, of Vhich, however, there is a 
copy in Aberdeen University Library. 

There were translations into French and Dutch. The seventeenth 
letter (by Gordon) was translated into French by J. L. Chalmel, 
membre du Conseil des Cinq-Cents, and published in Paris by 
A. Badouin (in 1790 .>), pp. 10. A translation in Dutch of 133 of the 
letters appeared in Amsteldam in three volumes in 1754 as follows 
(there is a copy in the Guildhall Library) : — 

i8 



THE 

Brieven over de Vryheid en het Geluk des Volks onder een Goede 
Regeering in 't Englesch uitgegeeven op den Naam van Cato, en 
nu naar den Vyfden Druk in 't Nederduitsch vertaald Amsteldam : 
K. v. Tongerlo en F. Houttayn. 

Besides the regular series a letter was published separately as 
follows : — 

A Discourse of standing armies, showing the folly, uselessness, and 
danger of standing armies in Great Britain, by Cato. (London : 
T. Warner.) 1722. 6d. [8vo, pp. 36.] 

Trenchard had denounced standing armies in 1697, but the sub- 
ject was discussed in Cato's Letter (No. 65, February 10, 1721) by 
Gordon under the title : " Military virtue produced and supported 
by Civil liberty only," the Naval side of the question having been set 
forth by Trenchard in the previous week (No. 64, February 3). 

Among the books published in opposition to Cato were the follow- 
ing — all in the British Museum : — 

A Defence of our present happy establishment and the administration 
vindicated from the falsehood and malice of several late treason- 
able libels, viz. Cato's Letters in the " London Journal," and the 
historical account of the advantage of the Hanoverian succession, 
etc. [by Dr. Matthew Tindal]. London: J. Roberts. 1722. 6d. 
[8vo, pp. 32. In this we are told that ** none but a madman, 
because his windows have been broken, will set fire to his own 
house, or let those in who will infallibly do it. And yet this is 
what Cato labours with all his might to harangue people into."] 
The Censor censur'd, or Cato turned Catiline, showing (1) who are the 
admirers of Cato ; (2) why they admire him ; with a word or two 
of standing force and a hint of ingratitude ; in a letter from a 
.Gentleman in the Country to his Friend in London. London : 
J. Roberts. 1722. 6d. [8vo, pp. 29.] 
Cato's principles of self-preservation and publick liberty, truly stated 
and fairly examined according to the law of nature, religion, and 
government. By a subject of the Caesars ; for the direction of those 
gentlemen and housekeepers who have a right to vote in the next 
election for Members of Parliament for Westminster. London : 
T. Warner. 1722. 6d. [Pp. 36.] 
A Defense of human liberty in answer to the principal arguments 
which have been alledged against it, and particularly to Cato's 
Letters on that subject. In which Defense the opinion of the 
antients concerning fate is also distinctly and largely considered. 
By John Jackson, Rector of Rossington in the County of York and 
Prebendary of Wherwell in the County of Southampton. London : 
J. Noon at the White Hart in Poultry. 1725. [Pp. viii, 207.] 

19 



THOMAS GORDON 

The battle against the South Sea Directors was carried on in 
two other pamphlets in addition to the attacks levelled in Cato's 
Letters : — 

The Conspirators ; or, The case of Catiline, as collected from the best 
historians, impartially examined ; with respect to his declared and 
covert Abettors : and the artifices used to skreen the conspirators 
from Parliament. By the author of the Case of Francis Lord 
Bacon: 8th edition. London: J. Roberts. 1721. Is. [8vo, 
pp. xiv, 57.] Part II, "by the author of the first". 3rd edition. 
London: J.Roberts. 172L Is. [Svo, pp. viii, 65,] 

The first pamphlet is dedicated by Britannicus to " the Right 

Hon. the E of S d " by whom the third Earl of Sunderland 

(1675-1722) is clearly meant, for he was involved in the disgrace 
attending the South Sea scheme, which forced him to resign his 
premiership. " Go then, my Lord," says the dedication, "and like a 
second Cato, persecute corruption wherever you find it : so may you 
be honoured in this Age and celebrated in the next : so, when the 
history of this Affair comes to be writ without prejudice or flattery, 
may you be stil'd the ' Preserver and Father of your Country '." 
Both editions noted are in Aberdeen University Library. 

Francis, Lord Bacon ; or, The case of private and national corruption 
and bribery, impartially considered : addressed to all South Sea 
Directors, Members of Parliament, Ministers of State, and church 
dignitaries. By an Englishman. 3rd edition. London : James 
Roberts. 172L Is. [Pp. xvi, 62. (British Museum) : 6th edition. 
172L (Aberdeen University).] 

This pamphlet is dedicated by •' Britannicus " to the last Duke of 
Wharton (1698-1731), who vigorously opposed the extension of the 
South Sea Company's Charter in 1720. In his dedication "Britan- 
nicus " apostrophised the Duke thus : " You start upon the World at 
once with all the Powers and Address of a mammoth Orator. You 
emulate [Cicero] in all his graces, without lessening those happy 
Talents by his Prolixity, or self admiration. . . . You think, like Cato, 
that a Nobleman ought not to be a private man." 

Miscellaneous Pamphlets. 

Three political letters to a Noble Lord concerning liberty and the con- 
stitution. London : J. Roberts, Warwick Lane. 172L Price 6d. 
[Svo, pp. 38. Copy in the British Museum.] 

A Supplement to the Political Letters (1721). [There is a copy in the 
British Museum, but it has been mislaid, and I have not seen it.] 

20 



THE " INDEPENDENT WHIG " 

An Essay towards preventing the ruin of Great Britain. London : 
J. Roberts. 1721. Price 6d. [Pp. 27. Copy in the British 
Museum.] 

The Spirit of the ecclesiasticks of all sects and ages as to the doc- 
trines of morality, and more particularly the spirit of the ancient 
Fathers of the Church, examined by Mons. Barbeyrac, Professor 
of Laws and History in the University of Lausanne ; translated 
from the French by a Gentleman of Gray's Inn, with a preface by 
the Author of the " Independent Whig ". London : printed for 
J. Peele at Locke's Head, in Paternoster Row. 1722. Price Is. 
[Pp. 72. Copy in the British Museum.] 

In the course of the six-page preface, Gordon says : " I thank 
God we can understand the Scriptures without the voluminous and 
contradictory ravings and declamations of the Fathers, who have 
equally perverted the Religion of Jesus and the Religion of Nature ". 

A Seasonable apology for Father Francis, Chaplain to Prince Pretty- 
man, the Catholick, but now lying in durance under the suspicion 
of secret iniquity ; in which are occasionally inserted some weighty 
arguments for calling a General Council of the nonjuring doctors 
for the further propagation of ceremonies, unity, dissension, and 
anathemas, and for the better improvement of exorcism and March 
beer. 

This pamphlet was first printed in 1723, but there is no copy 
in the British Museum, which, however, possesses the reprint (pp. 
317-349) in Richard Baron's *' Pillars of priestcraft and orthodoxy 
shaken," issued in 1752. It aims at Francis Atterbury (1662-1732), 
the Nonjuring Bishop of Rochester, who on being deprived of his 
offices and banished, went to Brussels in 1723. 

Namby Pamby ; or, a Panegyric on the new versification, addressed to 
A[mbrose] P[hilips] Esq : [the butt of some of Pope's satires]. 

Namby Pamby, Jack a Dandy 
Stole a piece of Sugar Candy 
From the Grocer's shoppy-shop 
And away did hoppy-hop. 

By Captain Gordon, author of "Apology for Parson Alberony," 
and "The Humourist". [Broadside of 96 lines: in the British 
Museum.] 

A Hue and Cry after M k, late master to a Corporation in the City 

of Dublin, by the author of Namby Pamby [1725?. The British 
Museum Cataloguer has written in pencil the words, " j.^., Gordon 
of Kirkcudbright."] 

21 



THOMAS GORDON 

Namby Pamby's answer to Captain Gordon : — 

*' Goosy goosy gander 
Where shall I wander ? " 

[A Broadside of 44 doggerel lines tentatively dated 1730, by the 
British Museum Catalogue.] 

It was Henry Carey who invented the phrase " Namby Pamby," 
applying it to the silly lines of Ambrose Philips on the infant child 
of Lord Carteret. " Namby " is the baby way of pronouncing " Am- 
brose," and the P. of Philips suggested the jingle. 

A Cobler's Opera, as it is now acted at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln's 
Inn Fields. By Mr. Gordon, author of "The Humourist". Dub- 
lin : reprinted and sold by Mr. Hoey and George Faulkner at the 
Pamphlet shop in Skinner Row, opposite the Tholsel. 1729. [12mo, 
pp. 29. Six male and three female characters, with two scenes — 
Billingsgate and a room in the Gun Tavern. In the British 
Museum.] 

An Appeal to the unprejudiced concerning the present discontents 
occasioned by the late Convention with Spain. London : 1730. 
[8vo. Attributed by Halkett and Laing to T. Gordon on the evi- 
dence of Maidment. No copy in the British Museum.] 

The True Crisis. London : 1730. [8vo. In the Bodleian but not in 
the British Museum.] 

A Vindication of the Quakers, or an answer to the Bishop of L 's 

charge against them, and the late defence of that charge : to which 
is added a more full and perfect account of the Quakers and their 
doctrines occasioned by Dr. Henry Moore's opinion of them. 1730. 
[This pamphlet, which I have not seen in its original state — it is 
not in the British Museum — is reprinted in *' A Cordial for low 
spirits" (ii., 227-254). In the 6th edition of the "Independent 
Whig" appears a "Dialogue between a country clergyman and a 
Quaker " (vol. iii., no. 5, 70-73).] 

A Letter to a gentleman in Edinburgh concerning the busy and 
assuming spirit of the ecclesiasticks and their extravagant demands 
upon the laity. [This first appeared signed "G." in the 5th edition 
of the " Independent Whig," 1732 (vol. ii., pp. 513-536). It is also 
reprinted in "A Collection of tracts," by Trenchard and Gordon^ 
1751.] 

A Sermon preached before the learned Society of Lincoln's Inn on 
January 30, 1732, from Job xxxiv. 30, by a Layman. London : 
J. Peele at Locke's Head. 1733. Is. [Pp. 51. In the British 
Museum. Reprinted in the 6th edition of the " Independent Whig," 
1735 (vol. iii., pp. 321-375).] 

22 



THE "INDEPENDENT WHIG 

A Supplement to the Sermon preached at Lincoln's Inn on January 30, 
1732, by a Layman, addressed to a very inportant and most 
solemn Churchman, Solicitor-General for Causes Ecclesiastical. 
London : J. Peele. 1733. Price 6d. [8vo, pp. 38. In the British 
Museum. The sermon is dated May 8, 1732-33. Reprinted in the 
6th edition of the "Independent Whig," 1735 (vol. iii., pp. 376- 
412).] 

The Tryal of William Whiston clerk, for defaming and denying the 
Holy Trinity before the Lord Chief Justice Reason ; to which is 
subjoined a new Catechism for the fine ladies ; also a specimen of 
a new version of the Psalms by Mr. Pope, etc. The third edition. 
London : printed for a Society for the encouragement of learning ; 
sold by J. Cooper in Fleet Street. 1740. 

The '* Tryal " occupies pp. 1-44, and the rest of the volume, pp. 
45-67. The curious bent of Gordon's mind is shown by the etceteras 
at the end of this edition which, to say the least of it, border on 
lubricity. The Trial, without the frillings, was reprinted by Richard 
Baron in ''The Third and last cordial for low spirits" (p. 156). 
Whiston's son, John, the Fleet Street bookseller (d. 1780), who sold 
Gordon's library, and whose notes on him appear in Nichols' 
*' Literary Anecdotes," thought this "one of the two really humorous 
things " Gordon ever wrote. 

An Essay on Publick Sports and Diversions ; written by an ingenious 
friend and countryman, Mr, Gordon, author of the *' Independent 
Whig," and now published by the request of several gentlemen 
and ladies; to which is subjoined an epilogue [in verse] addressed 
to the nobility, gentry, etc., of Edinburgh, spoke by Mr. Este on 
Monday the 17th of January, 1743, at the Taylors Hall, Cowgate ; 
and also another [in verse] sent by an unknown hand, and spoke 
by Mr. Ware on Friday the 21st of January, 1743. Edinburgh : 
printed in the year 1743. [I2mo, pp. 8.] 

In the course of the essay Gordon says : " Operas, balls, play- 
houses, and publick assemblies of what kind soever that require rich 
and costly dress . . . are publick benefits. ... It ought to be con- 
sidered further that these diversions take people off from diving into 
the secrets of government and busying themselves in matters that 
do in no measure belong to them." This is quite the (sarcastically.^) 
reverse of the point of view expressed by Gordon a quarter of a 
century before in the " Character of the Independent Whig," when 
he described " Masquerades " as ^' a market for maidenheads and 
adultery ". There is a copy in the British Museum. Mr. R. W. 

23 



THOMAS GORDON 

Lowe in his "Bibliographical Account of Theatrical Literature" 
described it as "a great rarity," but he had not seen a copy. 

Gordon as Translator. 

Gordon was an enthusiastic Latinist. If we are to believe the 
British Museum Catalogue, he started his literary career with a 
Latin thesis on Justinian, 1716, and he is usually said to have gone 
to London as a teacher of "languages ". In the midst of his busy 
polemical life he made translations of Tacitus and Sallust, using 
the text in true Whig fashion to air his political views, and picturing 
Caesar as a mere demagogue. These " discourses " had a great 
vogue, while the translation of Tacitus was for long the standard one. 

The Works of Tacitus. 2 vols. London : printed for Thomas Wood- 
ward at the Half Moon over against St. Dunstan's Church and 
John Peele, at Locke's Head in Paternoster Row, 1728 and 1731. 
[Folio.] 

The first volume contains the Annals (pp. 1-479) to which are 
prefixed Political Discourses on Tacitus (in smaller type, pp. 1-124). 
The dedication is to Sir Robert Walpole, as " the first to promote 
the following work in a public manner". 

The second volume contains the five books of the History, the 
treatise on Germany, and the life of Agricola (pp. 1-391), prefixed by 
the Political Discourses on the author (in smaller type, pp. 1-143), 
with an elaborate index of 40 pages. The whole volume is dedicated 
to Frederick, Prince of Wales, with separate dedications to John, 
Lord Carteret (afterwards Earl Granville, 1690-1753) in front of the 
treatise on Germany ; and to John, Duke of Argyll, *' my patron and 
my friend," in front of the life of Agricola. 

An octavo edition appeared almost simultaneously (1728 and 
1732) in four volumes, that is to say vols. i. and ii. divided into two 
parts each, being printed in Dublin by A. Rhames for R. Gunne, 
J. Smith, and W. Bruce. A second edition, revised, was published 
in 1737. 

Gordon's translation followed the standard translations Green- 
way (1598) and Dryden (1698), and was superseded by A. Murphy's 
(1793), which was merely a dilution of Gordon's. Thomas Murray 
in his ** Literary History of Galloway" (1822) tells us (p. 223) that 
Gordon's translation was published by subscription. " As it was in 

24 



THE "INDEPENDENT WHIG" 

folio ["pompous folios" as they were called by Gibbon], Gordon's 
'Tacitus' was very lucrative." Part of his translation is known 
to modern readers, for " The Reign of Tiberius out of the first six 
Annals, with the account of Germany and the life of Agricola," was 
issued by Walter Scott in the Camelot Classics in 1886, with. a long 
introduction by Arthur Galton, of New College, Oxford, who praises 
it, attributing Gordon's "correct vocabulary" to "his bold and 
pregnant language," and to " his scholarly punctuation". Professor 
G. G. Ramsay, who has translated the Annals, writes to me that 
Gordon's translation merited the popularity which it attained as 
being suited to the taste of its day. " It runs smoothly and gives a 
good general idea of the sense, but it does not come up to the 
modern standard of accuracy in scholarship, and it gives no idea of 
the style or even of the compression of this author." 

The Political Discourses with which Gordon prefaced the trans- 
lation are completely out of date, but they had such a vogue in their 
time that they were actually being translated nearly half a century 
after Gordon's death, for a translation by P. Daude appeared in 
Paris, in three volumes, in 1794, of the " Discours historiques 
critiques, et politiques sur Tacitus et sur Sallust ". The first volume 
contains the Tacitus discourses, and the second and third those on 
Sallust. There is a copy in the British Museum ; the third volume 
is a reprint of a translation which had appeared in 1759 of: — 

The Works of Sallust, translated into English, with political discourses 
upon that author ; to which is added a translation of Cicero's four 
Orations against Cataline. London : printed for J. Woodward and 
J. Peele. 1745. [4to. In the British Museum.] 

The first volume is dedicated, pp. i-xvi, to the Duke of Cumber- 
land, of CuUoden notoriety. Another set of pages, also numbered 
i-xxii, is an introduction to the author : pp. xxiii-xxviii are the con- 
tents to the Political Discourses, pp. 1-202 are the Political Dis- 
courses themselves. The second volume is dedicated to Evelyn, last 
Duke of Kingston (1711-1773), at whose seat, Stretton in Hants, 
Gordon was staying in 1743 : pp. 1-336 contains the translation text : 
and pp. 337-346 the index. The dedication to Cumberland is very 
fulsome : " Few, sir, of your high rank, have found at your years 
[he was then 24], fewer have embraced, fewer still have improved, an 
opportunity of displaying military talents, and earned such military 
renown ". 

25 



THOMAS GORDON 

A translation (" par un de ses amis ") appeared in French in 
1759: " Discours historiques et politiques sur Sallust," of which 
there is a copy in the British Museum. A translation of the first of 
the Political Discourses appeared in quarto form at Madrid in 1840, 
by J. Lumbreras, under the title " Discurso sobre los partidos y 
facciones ". There is a copy in the British Museum. 

The Jacobite Rebellion. 

Gordon was a strong anti-Jacobite. He wrote several essays 
against the Jacobites, and they were reprinted, as already noted, in 
the fourth volume of the seventh edition of the " Independent Whig," 
issued in 1747. They were reprinted in the following year as 
follows : — 

A Collection of papers all written, some of them published, during 
the late Rebellion. By the author of "The Independent Whig". 
Dublin : J. Kilburn. 1748, [12mo, pp. xx, 248.] 

There are twenty-two papers in the volume, beginning with a 
fierce attack on Roman Catholicism in general, and on France as 
a Catholic country in particular — even the France of William the 
Conqueror, who is pictured as "faithless and barbarous" to Eng- 
lishmen ; the chapter on the Norman Invasion (pp. 32-39) is 
largely a summary of the first chapter in the author's unpublished 
" History of England ". The same work is utilised in the chapter 
on James II (pp. 102-108). Papers 14-17 contain the "Dialogue 
between a noble Convert and his late Confessor," which was also 
printed in the "Essays against Popery" (1750 ?). In the thirty-first 
chapter, "The Absurdity of Jacobitism," we are told that the voice 
of Jacobitism is the " same with the voice of Popery, to give up 
our senses. . . . Jacobites do with Patriotism as Papists do with 
Religion. How dare a Jacobite defile the sacred name of Patriotism, 
when he would leave the Gospel to the cruel mercy of a tool to the 
Pope, and all the laws of Liberty to a professed enemy of the Law ? 
. . . The wild partisans educated on hills and in caves, as fierce as 
wolves, as ignorant as cattle, were furnished with cant, which they 
called Reason. A miserable mob, naked of instruction, as well as of 
covering, would be the judge of all things." 

A Short review of a late pamphlet entitled " Some Considerations on 
the law of forfeitures for High Treason ". London : J. Roberts. 
1746. Price Is. [Svo, pp. 76.] 

26 



THE "INDEPENDENT WHIG" 

There is a copy of this pamphlet in the British Museum, but it is 
attributed to Gordon not by the Catalogue, but by Watt's •' Biblio- 
theca Britannica ". The "Considerations" was written in 1745 
by Charles Yorke (1722-1770) who became Lord Chancellor. 

An Essay on government. London : J. Roberts, in Warwick Lane. 
1747. Price Is. [8vo, pp. v, 47 : in the British Museum.] 

This pamphlet is dedicated by T. Gordon to Sir Robert King, 
bart. of Boyle Abbey, co. Roscommon (1724-1755), who was created 
Lord Kingsborough in 1749. 

Essays against popery, slavery, and arbitrary power, published during 
the late unnatural Rebellion in the years 1745 and 1746. Man- 
chester: printed by R. Whitworth, bookseller. [1750? 8vo» 
pp. xii, 240 : in the British Museum.] 

The essays were by several hands, beginning with the " Six 
Farmers' Letters to the Protestants of Ireland". Ten are by 
Gordon, some of them being signed " Montanus," and the dedication 
(pp. i-xii) is taken from Cato's Letters, Nos. 126 and 127, published 
in 1723. The essays by " Montanus" are as follows : — 

" On the want of charity in the Roman Church" (pp. 65-71). 
'♦ Hints at the dreadful consequences that would ensue a successful 
French invasion " (pp. 72-80). 

" Remarks upon the appeal of the Pretender, young and old, to the 
People," published November 21, 1745 (pp. 81-91). In the course 
of this essay we are told (p. 80) : "A blooJy host of robbers from 
the woods and bogs of Ireland, droves of savages from the rocks 
and caverns of the Highlands, void of letters and even of humility, 
armed with ignorance, brutality, and barbarous zeal, must be turned 
into the Army to secure a violent establishment by acts of violence ; 
crazy monks without mercy or knowledge must be our leaders to 
instruct us in the guilt of Christian charity and the danger of 
human reason ; a new nobility of Upstarts, Fugitives, and Outlaws, 
raised from obscurity, chiefly known for their barbarity ; original 
Mac's and O's shall swagger in the highest stations and dignities, 
bear the greatest titles without being able to read them, and sink, 
and defile them by wearing them." 

"On Popery" (pp. 92-99). 

*' A display of Popery in order to rouse stupid or lukewarm Protestants 
and undecisive Papists, who are kept by their priests' from the true 
knowledge" (pp. 115-120). 

" Some further thoughts upon Popery and the French Government "" 
(pp. 121-128). 

27 



THOMAS GORDON 

"Question . . . from one of Mr. Gordon's Political Discourses upon 
Sallust . . . of the mutability of Government" (pp. 129-134). 

*' Extracts from the reign of William the Norman " (pp. 135-142). This 
is taken from Gordon's '* History of England," which was never 
published as a whole. The MS. is now in the British Museum 
(Add. MSS. 20780). 

*• Further remarks on the Invasion and the Pretender's declaration " 
(pp. 145-150). 

'•Remarks on the conduct of three Princes of the Stuart family, etc." 
(pp. 151-156). 

"A Dialogue between a noble convert and his late confessor" (pp. 178- 
207). 

The last essay by Gordon, published in his lifetime was : — 

A Letter of consolation and counsel to the good people of England, 
occasioned by the late earthquake ; by Mr. Gordon. 

This production was first printed in 1750, London having experi- 
enced a slight earthquake shock on February 19, 1750. But the 
only copy of the pamphlet in the British Museum is the reprint of it 
in *' The Pillars of priestcraft and orthodoxy shaken," edited by 
Richard Baron (London : R. Griffiths, 1752), in which it appears 
(vol. i., pp. 273-315) signed "A Layman," though Baron assigns it to 
Gordon in the table of contents. It ends with the exhortation, '' Let 
us all live good lives and then we need not fear death or earthquakes ". 

Posthumous Reprints. 

In the year following Gordon's death, which occurred in 1750, 
two reprints appeared. 

A Collection of Tracts by the late John Trenchard, Esq., and Thomas 
Gordon, Esq. (London : F. Cogan, at the Middle Temple Gate in 
Fleet Street.) 1751. [2 vols., 12mo, pp. ix, 408; and pp. 419.] 

It is dedicated by the editor to William Hippisley, who was Trenchard's 
heir. The first volume contains 22 essays, and the second 18, or 40 
in all — of which 26 are attributed to "T. Gordon" in the table of 
contents, and another to Trenchard and Gordon in collaboration. 
Gordon's essays are as follows : — 

" A Modest apology for Parson Alberoni " (1719) ; " Apology for the 
Church in danger" (1719); "A Dedication to a great man"; «'A 
Letter to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury " ; " True account of 
a revelation lately discovered to Jeremiah van Husen, a German 
physician " (1719) ; " Learned dissertation upon old women " (1720) ; 

28 



THE 

• Considerations upon the approaching peace " (1720) ; " Letter to 
a leading great man [Walpole], concerning the rights of the people 
to petition " (1720) ; ** Case relating to the surrender of Mr. Knight " 
(1728) ; "Character of an Independent Whig" (1720) ; " Discourse 
on standing armies, showing the folly, uselessness, and danger to 
Great Britain " (1722) ; •* Nature and weight of the taxes of the 
nation " ; "A Compleat history of the late septennial parliament " 
(1722) ; " Practice of stock jobbing " (1724) ; " The Late proceedings 
and cruel execution at Thorn in Russian Poland " (1725) ; "Royal 
gallantry" (1723); "Letters to a gentleman in Edinburgh, con- 
cerning the busy and assuming spirit of the ecclesiastics " (1725) ; 
"The Craftsman" (1723); "A Serious expostulation with the 
Bishop of London " (1750) ; " True picture of a modern Tory " (1722), 
supplement to the sermon preached at Lincoln's Inn ; " Letter to 
the Rev. Dr. Codex on the subject of his instruction to the Crown, 
inserted in the Daily Journal " of February 27, 1733 (1734) ; the 
prefaces to the fourth and sixth collections of Cato's Letters ; 
" Creed of an Independent Whig " ; " Priestianity ". 

Another collection of Gordon's essays appeared about the same 
time : — 

A Cordial for low spirits, being a collection of valuable tracts, by the 
late Thomas Gordon, Esq. 2nd edition. London : R. Griffiths at 
the Dunciad. 1751. [Vol. i., pp. 228; vol. ii., pp. 352. 12mo. A 
supplementary volume is called " The Third and last cordial for 
low spirits ".] 

This collection of reprints was edited by Richard Baron (died 1768), 
who tells us in the preface to the second volume that he had 
had access to an annotated copy of the pamphlets, from which 
he was able to identify Gordon's ; and also to " Collins's Cata- 
logues". Collins was a great friend of Gordon, he tells us. It 
probably refers to Arthur Collins, the famous peerage compiler 
(1682-1760), who was originally a bookseller. Fourteen of the items 
reprinted are assigned either definitely or tentatively to Gordon, for 
whom Baron had a great admiration. The first volume contains the 
following seven pamphlets by Gordon : — 

" Dedication to a great man " (pp. 5-48) ; " Dissertation on old women " 
(pp. 49-88) ; " A Modern apology for Parson Alberoni " (pp. 89-142) ; 
"An Apology for the Church in danger"; "Cardinal Alberoni's 
letters to a Right Rev. Father in God" (pp. 193-206); "The Char- 
acter of an Independent Whig" (pp. 207-254); "Considerations 
upon the approaching Peace and upon the importance of Gibraltar " 
(pp. 255-288). 

29 



THOMAS GORDON 

The second volume contains three items attributed to Gordon : — 

"The Creed of an Independent Whig" (pp. 1-36); "A Letter to the 
author of the Independent Whig" (author supposed to be Mr. 
Gordon), (pp. 37-40) ; " Priestianity " (pp. 105-170). 

The third volume contains seven items, of which one is by Gordon, 
namely : — 

" The Trial of the Rev. William Whiston." 

A third edition of " A Cordial for low spirits " was published- by 
Wilson and Fell in 1763. A copy in Aberdeen University Library 
has MS. notes by the editor, Richard Baron. 

MSS. History of England. 

Besides all this, Gordon left a manuscript History of England 
now in the British Museum (Add. MSS. 20780), to which it was pre- 
sented in May, 1855, by Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan, 6th bart. of 
Nettlecombe, Somerset, descended from the eldest sister of Gordon's 
second wife. 

The "History of England" is written in a large clear hand. 
Gordon refers to this work in the preface to his translation of 
*'■ Sallust," 1745, where he says (p. xxi) : — 

*• I have been some years engaged on the ' History of England,' and 
intend to pursue it. . . . My first intention was to write the life of 
Cromwell only, but, as I found that, in order to describe his times 
it was necessary to describe the times which preceded and intro- 
duced him, and that I could not begin even at the Reformation 
without recounting many public incidents before the Reformation, 
I have begun at the Conquest and gone through several Reigns, 
some of these seen and approved by the ablest judges, such judges 
as would animate the slowest ambitions. Half of it will probably 
appear a few years hence; the whole will conclude with the 
« History of Cromwell '." 

In a letter written about 1743 to the Duke of Newcastle from 
Stretton, in Hampshire, the seat of the Duke of Kingston, husband 
of the notorious ** Duchess of Kingston," Gordon says : " I am going 
through an English Reign" (Add. MSS. 32703 f. 275). 

Gordon's History runs into 920 folio pages, written on both sides 
of the paper, and amounting to 171,200 words. It is not a continuous 
record, dealing only with the following sovereigns : — 

30 



THE '* INDEPENDENT WHIG 

PAGES 

William the Conqueror . . . . 1 to 28 

William II 29 „ 51 

Henry 1 53 „ 87 

Stephen 89 „ 115 

Henry II 117 „ 195 

Henry III 196 „ 302 

Edward II )303„384 

Edward III j " 

James 1 385 „ 460 

The " History of England" comes down to the year 1610 and ends 
in the middle of a sentence. 

Another unpublished work by Gordon (Add. MSS. 21153) consists 
of 54 folio pages, written on both sides of the paper, and running 
into 10,000 words, entitled : — 

" Upon persecution and the natural ill tendency of Power in the Clergy 
occasioned by the Tryal and tragical death of Lord Cobham " [Sir 
John Oldcastle]. 

Sir Walter Trevelyan thought highly of this essay, for, during a 
visit to Edinburgh in December, 1852, he showed it to Robert Cox, 
W.S. (1810-72), the anti-Sabbatarian writer, who advocated Sunday 
trains in 1850, and who began a series of anti-Sabbath treatises in 
1853 with his " Sabbath Laws and Sabbath Duties ". Cox, in a letter 
to Trevelyan, bound up with Gordon's essays, says, " the essay is 
not worth re-printing, partly because the views advanced had been 
largely conceded, and partly on account of the invective style," but 
he quotes from it in his '* Sabbath Laws" (pp. 245-246). 

Like most literary men — they are a peculiarly quarrelsome breed 
— Gordon had enemies, who thought little of him. 

Gibbon says (" JMiscellaneous Works," 1814 ed., vol. v.): "This 
writer has gained a great reputation for boldness and enthusiasm. 
Yet I have been not able to discover in his works anything but 
commonplace." He dismisses Gordon's "Tacitus" as "pompous 
folios ". 

Lord Bolingbroke, who died in 1751, the year after Gordon, con- 
trasts Conyers Middleton, who died the same day as Gordon, and the 
latter as "the best writer in England and the worst" (Nichols' 
^' Literary Anecdotes," v. 419). The Rev. Dr. William Webster 
(1689-1758) defended Bishop Dr. Francis Hare, Bishop of Chichester 
(1671-1740) against Gordon (Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes," v. 161). 
Pope flouted him as " Silenus " — because Gordon had been made 

31 



THOMAS GORDON 

first Commissioner of the Wine Licenses by Walpole — in " The 

Dunciad" (iv. line 492):— 

That nature our Society adores, 

Where Tindal dictates and Silenus snores. 

In the epilogue to the Satires (Courthope's edition, iii. 459), we get 
the couplet : — 

There's honest Tacitus once talked as big 

But he is now an Independent Whig. 

Courthope, by the way, classes Gordon among the '* venal hacks " 
of his day. 

On the other hand, Richard Baron, who reprinted many of his 
essays in " A Cordial for Low Spirits," speaks of him (vol. i., p. iii) 
as "the most excellent Thomas Gordon ". 

There is an appreciation (and also depreciation) of him in Thomas 
Murray's '' Literary History of Galloway" (pp. 213-224). 

Not only do we know nothing about Gordon's precise origin, but 
we do not know the name of the first lady he married before he led 
his colleague Trenchard's widow to the altar. Murray tells us that 
he had "several children" by his second wife, but that is doubtful. 
In his (holograph) will he speaks of his three children — Thomas^ 
William, and Patty, but as Thomas was admitted to the Bar in 
1740, it is clear that he could not have been the son by Mrs. Tren- 
chard, for Trenchard died in 1723. 

I do not know when "Tacitus" Gordon married Mrs. Trenchard. 
Gordon hints that the marriage was a death-bed legacy from Tren- 
chard. The marriage meant for Gordon an entry into a family with 
money, for Mrs. Trenchard's people, the Blacketts, were rich New- 
castle coalmasters. Gordon would seem to have been a widower in 
1719, for in "The Character of an Independent Whig" (p. 23), pub> 
lished in 1719, he speaks of " having neither wife nor daughter of 
my own ". 

He seems to have lived at Hornsey, for his son Thomas, is 
described in 1740 as the " son and heir of Thomas Gordon of Horn- 
sey in the County of Middlesex ". 

Gordon died in London on July 28, 1750, on the same day as his 
friend the Rev. Conyers Middleton (1683-1750), the biographer of 
Cicero. 

He made a holograph will on July 26, and it was proved by his 

32 



THE •* INDEPENDENT WHIG 

wife Anne, his sole executor, on August 8, 1750. He had made a 
pre-nuptia! contract with the lady, which was not affected by the 
will, and all her own property remained hers intact. He left certain 
property (apparently copyrights) to his three children : Thomas, 
barrister-at-law, Middle Temple ; William, and Patty. From the 
fact that there is no mention in Mrs. Gordon's will of any of these 
children, or even of anybody called Gordon, one may conclude either 
that none of them was hers, or that all of them predeceased her. 

Mrs. Gordon retired to Somerset, apparently to be near the 
Trevelyans, of Nettlecombe, the descendants of her sister, Lady 
Calverley. She had a house at Abbots Leigh, near Bristol (in the 
parish church of which there is a monument to her first husband, 
John Trenchard), where she made a will on April 4, 1777, adding a 
codicil on February 3, 1783. She died on April 15, 1783, and her 
will was proved in June, 1783, her grandnephew. Sir John Trevelyan, 
being executor. 



33 




Ia 



